Founder of a Dynasty: The Bais Halevi

[Music] a date which will live in [Music] INF both of those projects initiatives got off the ground because of the G the 11 OIC team members slain in West Germany the out of the 24 who were killed were Americans who had come to learn C I say one million Jewish children who were made to [Music] be whoever heard such beautiful words it is never too little it is never too late and it is Never Enough Jewish history sound bites bringing alive the world of our glorious past here is our host live from Jerusalem Jewish historian Anor guide Yehuda gab Yehuda gab with Jewish history sound bites and this episode about the Bas Hali has been sponsored by the worldwide friends of brisk Association in honor of the founder of the dynasty the B and requesting of everyone to think of two ways to listen to this episode either listen to the episode or have the episode play in your ears it's always fun to explore the history of Jewish aristocracy and there's none more exciting than the salic Dynasty and the basv is generally seen as the founder of this dynasty B of salic the rabbi in brisk at the end of the 19th century although the prominence of the family precedes him by several Generations but he was the first really famous world renowned solvic world reowned and World respected Torah leader he was also the first one to serve as the rabbi of brisk so he brings together the name solvic with the city of brisk in fact his biography in Hebrew uh is Harish brisk that's the name of the the title of the book the Harish the first one of shelis brisk of the uh the brisk Dynasty and it's by a fellow by the name of R Kinski who was an interesting character in his own right he studied in thisa then he moved with it to Kevon then he was a student of R cook and then he moved to the United States he was involved in theam he moved back to Israel and he was involved with the mrai and then he moved back to the United States but one of the main accomplishments of this Rim Kinski was this book that he wrote Harish Lees brisk about the the B um and the fact that it was it's a great biography and it was written in the early 1980s before the whole genre of uh rabinal biographies and he preceded it by quite a few years um and so the Bas of is one of the early ones that they actually was a nice biography written about um and uh I don't think there's been anything substantial written about him since then so we need like a remake or a translation into English or something of the sort so unlike his famous uh sons and other descendants his biography was written quite uh quite early on relatively early on as we'll see the Basia had a very interesting life story and family story and I'll just mention at the outset that his son from his third marriage the youngest son there was a boy and girl from his third marriage pesha was the daughter so this his son his youngest his Ben zakim who was I think he was born when the Bas was quite old like 59 or quite old um is featured in this coming week's mishak magazine in the four the record column by Davi Safir and myself and this the son of the B was one of the more forgotten figures of the salic dynasty Sim was born to the B Le later on in his life to his third wife like I said so he makes him a half brother of brisker he was a rabbi in mul in in in Russia and then he later moved to the United States he's the first major brisker son of the Bas of Ley to moved to the United States was a rabbi in Brooklyn um at the brisk scho I guess not ironically um so he's an interesting story and you'll want to check that out and he's profiled in this week's mishak magazine so make sure to pick up your copy so you can read all about but we're going to focus now on his father and today the city of brisk is in bellus near the Polish border and I've been there with groups several times even though there's really nothing to see in brisk the shul is gone the Yeshiva buildings gone the homes of of the B bris the brisar are gone even the cemetery is destroyed there's almost nothing to see the only thing to actually see there funnily enough is a large statue of the only brisk native to have won a Nobel Prize and that's of course manam Bean but either way the old cemetery is partly a parking lot today and there's a pretty uh good tradition regarding the reliable tradition regarding the spot in that parking lot which is the spot where the base Hali is buried where when it once was the cemetery so we've gone to this parking lot with groups a few times and paid our respects at the spot in the parking lot where the base of ley's final resting place is it's kind of sad and tragic in away and I really hope that the situation is rectified sometime soon that we can actually go to the Bas of Ley Kev so the B is known um he again he's but everyone calls him the B because he's known by the book he authored response to several volumes he wrote quite a few others for him as well um and he named it the Basi and he himself published it in three stages um all by him in his own lifetime which was you know unique and also very different than his descendants who them for the most part left their writings in manuscript and it was uously published by their children and descendants and students whereas the basy you know organized it wrote it and published it himself he also had several prominent descendants who were named for him R including R salic of Wu in Boston and um including rev barel salic in brisk in among others there are several prominent salic is named for the patriarch of the family so he himself was named for his paternal grandfather ofas of salic who is a rabbi in kavna um his grandmother um the B's grandmother was Rel the daughter ofer making the b a great grandson ofer the B's father was and he had studied inan during the time ofer who was obviously his uncle and for a time uh he served in some sort of capacity in the Yeshiva later on this ritv was a prominent Community leader and even an official Ram again a zar recognized Rabbi a crown Rabbi in kavna which is interesting that the salic had that as well and the B's mother Rifka was from aidic family leich leich is the antecedants of the slim Dynasty so his mother was and his father was of course a grandson ofer so it's an interesting and I just want to point out an interesting note on in the world of the B though the B and his ancestors and descendants are all seen as opponents of they're descendants ofer as I mentioned the B's mother came from aidic family the first wife of the Basi was from aabad kic family the second wife of the BVI was from a leich kic family similar to his mother and the third wife of the bra was from warso so I'm not sure if she was from iic family or not but if she's from warso then it's almost by nature of being from waro it almost makes you cic so how do we explain this phenomena um of of this combination we don't have to explain it because we let great Scholars like Professor Marin vinski explained it instead and what he said was that unlike conventional wisdom would have it and nonm rarely refrained from intermarrying that's somewhat of a myth they intermarried regularly and they didn't have any issue with it and this was for two reasons number one women were rarely if ever viewed asid as as active in a court rather they were known as coming from aidic family a daughter of Aid a sister of Aid a wife of Aid which is a whole Topic in its own Merit which I'm not going to get into now why was that the case and did did it hold true throughout the history history of the kic movement or only through the 19th century that's for another time but that's the reality and therefore um there was no issue with intermarriage fundamentally and number two What mattered in Aid in Eastern Europe through the 19th century was three criteria wealth Yus and Torah or a credentials those are the only three things that mattered in the important families and uh therefore that that you know if if they had wealth or or Torah Rabin Scholars and things like that or even two of the three or possibly even one of the three if there was enough wealth then you didn't care if they came from aidic family or not you had the important criteria and that's what you went with so the there there wasn't really an issue of of intermarriage between and in this way the salic brisker the brisker and all the other ones have plenty of in their supposedly pure lfish pedigree it's you know it has plenty ofas there as well which is probably why they became so great I'm just kidding around born so the BVI is born in 1820 he passed away in 1892 um and he most of the 19th century he came as a child to valan well before his bar mitzvah and he studied there for several years remember he's a family member uh of the of the valan family and an overlooked short period of his life not so short it was actually for several years is is when he went to Minsk um as a young man in his 20s um Rin tan of Minsk was a leading Rabbi Riva and Po in the 19th century and he headed the prestigious bluna clo Yeshiva in Minsk very famous Yeshiva which is a story for another time as well um at some point in the 1840s tanum had an ex reason to have an Extended Stay in Germany he was seeking medical tra treatment for an ailment and the Young Sal was invited to deliver shiur in blumas clo in Minsk in his stad so he moved to Minsk for several years he then returned to Bajan and he served as an assistant rash to his cousin the Berlin of um the the and this is in 1853 he arrives back and he becomes the assistant rashash there was a lot of controver y then who's going to be the assistant Riva is the NV the one in charge does he have an assistant who's that assistant going to beua Hash 11 um was pushed to the side at this point or the Bas of Ley comes in I discussed this whole dispute and this whole Saga at length and depth on the series that I did quite some time ago a couple years ago on the vajin Yesa it was a whole dispute which eventually led to the Bas of ley's departure from valan several years later you may want to check out out that episode it was um I would guess number two or three um on the vagan series but I may be wrong maybe it was four I don't remember um it was one of the parts in the vagan series very interesting story I'll go through it um just um you know very quickly here as well but um but you'll you'll have to go back to here more in depth on that valan Series in the interm before I get to the whole valan story in the interm the Bas Ley had gotten married and he had a daughter uh from that first marriage and then he got divorced um his the marriage did not work out a second marriage was shortly afterwards to Ritson sir Ephron from valan but she even though she grew up in valan she was from aidic leich family like I mentioned most of the B's children were from this marriage including R and brisker R brisker actually had an uh an older brother the oldest son of the B from the second marriage was Sal and he was a rabbi in smolin in Russia for 30 years from 1883 till his passing in 1913 the reason that's noteworthy is that smolin is outside the pale of settlement and the Jewish communities outside the pale were quite unique because you officially were not allowed to live outside the pale so who lived outside the pale people who had money uh people who were more educated people in the professions certain types of finishing military service um long time in the Russian army by the Zars wealthy more secular some even assimilated those were the type of communities outside of the pale and here the B's oldest son was the rabbi there for quite some time and that's got to be an interesting story as well either way this had a son rabis salvic and he was later a rabbi in Johannesburg in South Africa the basic lady had a bunch of other kids from this second wife another daughter named rela for his grandmother his daughter obviously she married a fellow who was a rabbi in yasi in Romania so these solo AIC really got around and very very far from brisk so as I mentioned the the B slav of ran from 1853 and on when he returned from Minsk and he clashes with the NV in pretty much every area in learning style and the way they delivered shiur and the way they related to the students in policy of the Yeshiva and administration in acceptance of new students in funding and budgeting and salaries and control of the whole institution pretty much about everything so some students liked the nav's old style method of study which was more of a bat style while many others enjoyed the B sharp and incisive in-depth style of learning so things came to a head in the mid 18 1850s and a rabinal arbitration committee I guess we could call it because they went out of their way to say it's not a president they did not have an odd number of rabbis they had an even number and they made it that it's a arbitration Bor you know to arbitration basically and they're convened in valan to decide who would be in in charge it was in 1856 there were four rabbis invited to oversee the proceedings a relatively younger inspector who did not study inval but he was already well respected even before he was the rabbi in Covenant he still the rabbi in nard at this time two Senior Living students of rer that's DAV of Minsk theas anderer who's obviously the rabbi in and the V although the arbitration document which we have the text of till today delineated each one's respective position control Power and even salary down to the smallest details re was granted much more control than when he arrived in 1853 um regarding acceptance policy uh spending the Yeshiva money and of course the salary that he received so although the NV still had the upper hand but the B CI came out of the arbitration with a much more improved position and relatively much more control so he came out the winner even though the NV was still the main rashash Shiva however despite the fact that he came out the winner the B was not satisfied with the arrangement and about 8 years later in 1864 he left valan for good to assume the rabet in um it isn't clear what the Catalyst was for his exit at that time but it seems that in general he was not satisfied with the valan arrangement and he was not able to see eye to eye with the NV on regarding policy though though though the two of them got along on a personal level talking about great people that managed to uh dispute regarding policy but still managed to get along um which is a historical noteworthy because it's so rare um so there's there's also actually a story that I it's very often repeated quite famous story an anecdote regarding the difference and personality between the NV and the Basi I call it a tale of two saders um about a student in valan who spent the first seder of pesak at the nv's home and the second night he spent at the Bas of Le's home and he described the two reactions the two different styles of personalities two different personalities the NV he said he it was this really calm and you know very relaxed Sor great atmosphere Good Vibes good energy good environment the matzas were these big beautiful white matzas and then NV was just so happy and so excited to do the Seder and to and to have gone through it and how look at these beautiful matzas we're going to get the Mitzvah of eating matah and so on and he described it with a lot more color and detail this student and his Memoir I forget who it was the second night he went to the Bas of Ley and the base of Ley real brisker even though this is before he was rash and brisk he was very intense and he was very concerned the whole time that perhaps the matzas aren't good and there was these like you know thin black burnt matzas it meant to make sure they're very very kosher and and they whole time they're rushing maybe we're not going to make the and whatever and and it was very intense very very tense very uh the year he said the year sh of the the B was palpable you felt that he was living living the fear of God on his face and his entire permeated his whole existence and the Atmosphere by the sers it's two two different approaches both legitimate I remember when I was discussing this story once with my rebbi and the Mir bash so he said look they're two different styles they're both uh you know both legitimate ways of serving Hashem he said you know as a typical mirror rash said personally I prefer the nv's style but that's just him you know that's that's the mirror for you either way that's that's that was that inan so now the B Aly moves to it's a large and prestigious and ancient Jewish town with some famous rabbis the B Le himself was succeeding the aforementioned slitzer R Famer who had recently passed away and remained there and and and and the Basia remains there for 11 years until the year 1875 why did the B live leave in 1875 he didn't exactly get along with the kaha leadership the wealthy establishment B Ley was um a strong leader strong personality he cared for the poor of the town he was the you know he stood up for the the the week and the downtrod very much like his son later on R brisker their style of leadership and he spoke his mind and his convictions and he was not afraid to voice his opinion when he perceived wrongdoing when he perceived corruption and the like and he had you know amazing integrity and and and uh and truthfulness and he would not uh you know shy away from confrontation with the kahal establishment and Leadership who are the ones who paid a salary obviously and they showed him the door when uh and and he was willing to give up his job basically uh when when when when things clashed and he felt that that you know he he would have to compromise on his values so that's why he left it's unclear exactly what it was what the dispute was but it isn't difficult to imagine that there were going to be flash points and and conflict one of the sources I saw actually said that he protested the custom of the coppers who were hired by the kahal to kidnap poor orphan children for the draft during the Terrible canonist decrees to the zarus Russian army and unafraid of of the kahal he protested against this practice and the leadership K leadership drove him out of town this is a fascinating version of the events because the canonist decrees ended 20 years before that there were no canonist decrees in 1875 they ended In 1855 so it would be an amazing story that 20 years after the canonist decrees ended he was protesting along aand abandoned practic practice so other than this Minor Detail would be a great story to repeat about the Bas so so why not you know in any event in 1875 he officially retired from the rabant and he moves to Warsaw he was assisted during this time in Warsaw by the by a young man named rabich ginski who was transforming Warsaw religious life he was building schools he was building isas was an incredible activist and Le leader of warsa jury for a century and he was close with many of the leaders of his day many of the Torah leaders of his day as well who published his M Bruin war and ginski assisted him with that either way so he was this R ginski was very close to Bas during his time in wars and helped him out a lot RIT was quite well known we go to his Kev actually in the warsa Jewish cemetery later on his son Ram ginski was the mash in slatka and he was killed by the Nazis allegedly during um the the B's time in war so he also had a relationship with theas the GBA it's definitely possible I'm not 100% sure um and four years later in 1879 the Bas Alvi is forced out of retirement and he reluctantly assumes the rabet in brisk the brisk Community invited him they rather implored him to come to fill the void left by the sudden departure ofu disin who had to leave because of whole incident whole story and its own own Merit and Riskin moves at that time to the land of Israel which was Ottoman Palestine at the time Andis becomes a prominent in the old yes in y that's also a great story so um the B is invited to succeed him in the rinet in brisk initially the Bas turned it down as he was officially done with the rabet but he was told that the Jewish community of brisk every individual Jew there the community as a whole are all waiting for him in great anticipation so in deference to to them waiting eagerly for him he acquiesced and returned to the rabant although he was reluctant to do so he thereby created the dynasty associated with his family name and an eternal Association of the salivic family with the city of brisk he served in brisk until his passing in 1892 and his passing was shortly after the closing of the vajan yiva and his son R brisker who is the assistant Riva to the NV at the time of the closing the zaris government expelled the NV and and the entire faculty from the whole Vila District the Russian authorities wanted them out so R had come to live by his father just a few months before so he was kind of at the right place at the right time and was able to succeed his father in the brisk uh ravinet another episode from his early years is actually quite interesting um from his way early years from when he was in his 20s it seems that the rasa Ley had either an interaction or even a an extended relationship with the great gitan Torah scholar and pis SCH muger one of the most prominent rabbis in the world at the time when the B was a young man and her muger was already a world-renowned leader Torah leader it's it sounds odd why because not only is galitzia very far from valan and Minsk and far from the world of valan and Minsk where the Bas of Ley resided at the time but bro bro in galitzia where the muger was a rabbi it was at a different country it was a different Empire it was not Russia it was the hapsburg austr Hungarian Empire so but it seems that they they knew each other it seems that definitely knew each other and they interacted and that the Elder RL muger held his younger contemporary in high esteem one version I saw has it that over the course of the Bas divorce that I mentioned a question arose regarding the spelling of his name which was Yos so do you spell yosha with a shin or a s and the Basi decided on his own initiative and expense to travel down to galala and present this question to muger in person the latter then invited him to stay for chabas and even had him deliver a speech in the shul and bro so that would be one version of how they got to know each other the M was also quite heavily involved in the at the macro level of rabic leadership of confronting the challenges facing Russian jewry which there were many of those over the course of the 19 century and the Bas was involved at almost every stage he was a very prominent on the rinic scene across Russia the crushing oppression of the Zars on one hand and meeting with government officials and the trends of modernity on the other hand and change um he foreshadowed the involvement of his Descendants the brisker Salo approach of Charisma Integrity forcefulness no compromising wisdom sharpness and sometimes even extremism so he he's definitely the the father of the Dynasty in many ways um in leadership and in his style and in this context he participated in many rabinal Gatherings and meetings with government officials and other Jewish leadership emerging new types of Jewish leadership at that time and enjoyed that successful rabinal career um in in in all the places that he was so this was the Bas this is yud gabra with Jewish history sound bites you can reach me at yud yud g.com for questions comments sources tours trips sponsorships and lectures you can subscribe to Jewish history sound bites on podbean or your favorite podcast platform and I hope you enjoyed